The field of this invention is power electronics and electrical power conversion. Electronic power inverters are devices for converting direct current (DC) power, usually from a storage battery, into alternating current (AC) power for household appliances. Some inverters also convert power from an AC source to charge the storage battery used by the inverter. Devices capable of power transfer in either direction, DC-to-AC or AC-to-DC are commonly referred to as inverter/chargers or bi-directional inverters. Inverters are also used in renewable and distributed energy systems to convert DC power from photovoltaic panels, fuel cells or wind turbines into power that can be delivered into the utility grid. There is a growing demand for an inverter product with this capability that can also charge storage batteries and support AC loads when the utility grid is not available. Residential systems with both renewable energy sources and energy storage components typically use a battery-centric topology. This is because the battery provides a stable voltage and high peak power capabilities. In these systems, the renewable energy source interfaces to the battery through a DC-to-DC converter or charge controller to provide the required matching and regulation functions. The battery is in turn connected to a DC-to-AC inverter, to support the system loads, and to a battery charger. Additional energy sources as well as DC loads would also logically tie in at the storage battery connection point. With the present state of technology, this arrangement typically provides the most cost effective and highest performance system solution. There are a number of inherent limitations with this approach. (i) The storage battery voltages are relatively low compared to the AC voltages that the inverter produces. A common power conversion method is to convert the low DC battery voltage into a low AC voltage and then use a transformer to convert to a higher AC voltage. This approach requires a heavy, expensive, and typically inefficient, low frequency transformer. (ii) The conversion efficiency from the renewable energy source to the battery to the utility grid is low because of the additive losses from each successive power conversion stage. (iii) Higher voltage, higher efficiency, lower cost photovoltaic series “string” arrays are not practical because of the photovoltaic/battery voltage disparity. (iv) Individual power converters in battery-centric systems are usually autonomous. It is advantageous for all power converters to act in concert in order to achieve optimum battery life and to better support the system loads.